Young Organizers Mobilize to Change Their World, Starting with School “I shouldn’t have to go to school wearing a hard hat, with things falling from the ceiling.” — Fernando, 17 ids cram into airless classrooms with under-prepared teachers. Toilets overflow in bathrooms insufficient for the number of users. Courses don’t connect with the issues students care about. Military recruiters approach kids constantly, but college recruiters don’t bother. For high schools located in poor communities, such conditions sound a familiar litany. But in recent years, young people across the country have decided that it’s time to put their foot down—and then to take the next steps toward a serious advance in the battle against inequity. Across the nation a new kind of youth organization is springing up, in which issue-based organizing combines with leadership development, cultural enrichment, and academic and personal support. It often starts with a campaign to change school-related problems. But as participants learn the ropes, they go on to tackle community issues, create new partnerships with adults, and profoundly change how they view the political process. In the stories that follow, What Kids Can Do profiles two such youth organizing initiatives: Youth Organizing Communities East Los Angeles, CA “We learned how to communicate with students, what is an appropriate way to outreach, to go up and ask them what they thought about the school. We knew we would get a lot of negative feedback. We made them aware that they had a voice in what was going on.” Sistas and Brothas United Bronx, NY “...we got a lot of stuff fixed—the lights, the escalators, we got the boys a new gym locker room, we got more books into the school... As an organization, a few youth together have enough power to speak to officials about problems in our schools. You know you’re not just nobody in your schools—you can do changes.” SEE ALSO: Campaign-based learning: a veteran activist talks about the lessons youth gain through organizing “The skills youth organizing teaches young people are endless. And it’s the way youth organizing pushes young people to gather these skills together into a coherent whole that gives it special strength.” — Kim McGillicuddy Directory of youth organizing groups involved in school reform From coast to coast, community-based youth groups—some entirely youth-led, some involving young people working alongside adults—are increasingly taking on the issue of public education and improving schools. Here’s an annotated directory of some of these groups. What we’re learning about youth organizing: occasional papers from the Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO). Four just-released papers provide a comprehensive look at the growing field of youth organizing, presenting the history of the movement, profiles of current groups, and its impacts on youth.

AND NOTE:

• A small group of funders makes supporting youth organizing, including organizing around school reform, a top priority. The Funders’ Collaborative for Youth Organizing and the Hazen and Surdna Foundations are among the best known.


• June 14-21, 2003 the national PBS weekly series for teens, In the Mix, airs “STUDENT POWER! ORGANIZING FOR SCHOOL REFORM.” The Open Society Institute underwrote this new, half-hour documentary.